This invention relates in general to vehicle wheels and in particular to an improved full face vehicle wheel and method for producing the same.
A conventional vehicle wheel is typically of a two-piece construction and includes an inner wheel disc and an outer xe2x80x9cfullxe2x80x9d wheel rim. The wheel disc can be cast, forged, or fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inner annular wheel mounting portion and an outer annular portion. The wheel mounting portion defines an inboard mounting surface and includes a center pilot or hub hole, and a plurality of lug receiving holes formed therethrough for mounting the wheel to an axle of the vehicle. The wheel rim is fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange, an inboard tire bead seat, an axially extending well, an outboard tire bead seat, and an outboard tire bead seat retaining flange. In some instances, a three-piece wheel construction having a mounting cup secured to the wheel disc is used. In both types of constructions, the outer annular portion of the wheel disc is secured to the wheel rim by welding.
A full face vehicle wheel is distinguished from other types of vehicle wheels by having a one-piece wheel disc construction. In particular, the full face wheel includes a xe2x80x9cfull facexe2x80x9d wheel disc and a xe2x80x9cpartialxe2x80x9d wheel rim. The full face wheel disc can be cast, forged, or fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys. The full face wheel disc includes an inner annular wheel mounting portion and an outer annular portion which defines at least a portion of an outboard tire bead seat retaining flange of the vehicle wheel. The wheel mounting portion defines an inboard mounting surface and includes a center pilot or hub hole, and a plurality of lug receiving holes formed therethrough for mounting the vehicle wheel to an axle of the vehicle. The partial wheel rim is fabricated from steel, aluminum, or other alloys, and includes an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange, an inboard tire bead seat, an axially extending well, and an outboard tire bead seat. In some instances, the outboard tire bead seat of the wheel rim and the outer annular portion of the wheel disc cooperate to form the outboard tire bead seat retaining flange of the full face vehicle wheel. In both types of constructions, the wheel disc and the wheel rim are supported relative to one another in a predetermined position by clamping and locating off of an inside surface of the well of the wheel rim so that the outboard tire bead seat of the wheel rim is positioned adjacent the outer annular portion of the wheel disc with the inside surface of the well being generally parallel with respect to the center of the hub hole of the wheel disc. While in this position, a weld is applied adjacent the outboard tire bead seat to secure the wheel rim and the wheel disc together.
In the above full face vehicle wheel constructions, after the wheel disc and the wheel rim have been assembled and welded together several finishing operations may be required to produce a wheel having the desired specifications. For example, the location of center pilot hole, the lug receiving holes or both may have to be corrected by an appropriate method so that the associated centerlines thereof are oriented in a predetermined relationship with respect to the bead seats of the vehicle wheel. This is due to the fact that in the welding operation the centerline of the inside surface of the well of the wheel rim may not be concentric to the centerline of the bead seats. Typically the center pilot hole and the lug bolt receiving holes provided in the wheel disc are initially undersized holes. Thus, after the welding process it is usually necessary to size the center pilot hole to a final size by an appropriate process, such as reboring the center pilot hole, so that the axis of the center pilot hole is oriented in a concentric relationship relative to the wheel axis. To accomplish this, the assembled vehicle wheel is clamped or located on the bead seats thereof to ensure that the centerline of the bead seats and the centerline of the final formed center hub hole are located concentric to one another. Also, it is usually necessary to size the lug bolt receiving holes to a final size by an appropriate process, such as repunching the lug bolt receiving holes so that the axes of the lug bolt receiving holes are oriented parallel to the axis of the center hub hole and therefore, the wheel axis.
This invention relates an apparatus and method for assembling a wheel rim and a wheel disc together to produce a full face vehicle wheel. This invention relates to a method for producing a full face vehicle wheel and comprises the steps of: (a) providing a rim including an inboard tire bead seat retaining flange, an inboard tire bead seat, a well portion, an outboard tire bead seat, the inboard tire bead seat retaining flange including an outer surface, the inboard tire bead seat including an outer surface, and the outboard tire bead seat including an outer surface; (b) providing a disc including a generally centrally located inner wheel mounting portion and an outer annular portion, the outer annular portion including an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner wheel mounting portion including at least one of a fully formed center pilot hole and a plurality of fully formed lug bolt mounting holes, the center pilot hole defining a pilot hole axis and each of the lug bolt holes defining a lug bolt hole axis; (c) providing a wheel fixture tooling assembly for supporting the rim and the disc relative to one another, the wheel fixture tooling assembly operative to locate the rim on the outer surfaces of the inboard and outboard tire bead seats whereby the inboard and outboard tire bead seats are located relative to the axis of the center pilot hole and the axis of the lug bolt holes; and (d) subsequent to step (c), securing the wheel disc to the wheel rim by a weld. Preferably, in step (b) both the center pilot hole and the lug bolt mounting holes are fully formed. Forming the full face vehicle wheel according to the method and using the apparatus of the present invention results in the finished full face vehicle wheel not being subjected to the above described post welding finishing operations.